Comments on: Chicago Cougar Was Wildhttp://cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/chic-puma-wild/
for Bigfoot, Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents and MoreSat, 01 Aug 2015 06:00:17 +0000hourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.3By: Samson77http://cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/chic-puma-wild/comment-page-1/#comment-42430
Tue, 20 May 2008 10:16:42 +0000http://cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/chic-puma-wild/#comment-42430Although not common, it does happen more frequently than you would expect here in southern California (Cougars roaming into suburban areas). I live just north of Ontario (cal) airport, and we usually get one or 2 a year wandering into neighborhoods. Most of the time it is when the weather is very hot or during a drought.
]]>By: knight pumahttp://cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/chic-puma-wild/comment-page-1/#comment-42442
Mon, 05 May 2008 17:15:56 +0000http://cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/chic-puma-wild/#comment-42442Tell me this, if you where a big cat how would you communicate to humans? is up to them to reach you or you to understand them? and yes they are every where.
]]>By: aastrahttp://cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/chic-puma-wild/comment-page-1/#comment-42441
Sat, 03 May 2008 02:18:43 +0000http://cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/chic-puma-wild/#comment-42441“…critical pieces of a larger puzzle, which for us and other agencies is where it came from and how and why it reached an urban area…”

What’s puzzling? As anyone from British Columbia will tell you, cougars can and do venture into urban areas. In Victoria they’ve shown up in all sorts of seemingly unlikely places: the underground parking garage beneath the city’s conference center, inside the offices of a plastics manufacturer…one even crashed through a window into a home in the touristy James Bay neighborhood (in the cougar’s defense, it was being chased by dogs at the time).

In Los Angeles there have been recent incidents in Altadena and in Orange County (the latter being the fatal attack on the cyclist in Whiting Ranch Park, which is literally 10 miles from Disneyland).

The point is, if cougars are in the vicinity then you can expect them to show up in the suburbs and even in the city every now and then. Why did this cougar show up in Chicago? The simple and obvious explanation is because there are cougars in Illinois, just as there are cougars in B.C. and Washington and California and Nebraska and Colorado and Missouri. They’re there, and sometimes they wander into town. It’s no more puzzling than that.

You can declare them extinct or extirpated or whatever, but that doesn’t mean the cougars will cooperate.

]]>By: zippydrivehttp://cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/chic-puma-wild/comment-page-1/#comment-42440
Fri, 02 May 2008 06:44:53 +0000http://cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/chic-puma-wild/#comment-42440This isn’t that uncommon-seeing these cats in Illinois, that is. In the southern counties, there are black panthers roaming free in the woods. Many people in the area remain skeptical, but many others have witnessed them in trees, running, or out and about in early morning/late night. Seeing something so big and distinctive is not an experience you could mix up with another.

There was a rumor that the government actually release them into the public to control the deer population many, many years ago, but I really don’t know if there’s any truth to that. It doesn’t seem like an even solution.

]]>By: Larryhttp://cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/chic-puma-wild/comment-page-1/#comment-42439
Thu, 01 May 2008 21:48:54 +0000http://cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/chic-puma-wild/#comment-42439I live in Chicago, Illinois. I can tell you this much: If you want the General Assembly of this state to provide recognition to a rare species, it is important that you follow certain well-established steps. First, you must hire appropriately expensive lobbyists. After that, several golf outings in warm locations will likely be followed by steak dinners with fine brandy. These will be described as educational summits on the state of your species in the Illinois ecosystem.

At that point, you will succeeded in getting the necessary attention from legislators but not the Governor. A sizable birthday present to one of his children will do the trick. That will cause all of the state legislative wheels to turn.

Of course, none of that matters if Chicago’s Mayor Daley is not happy. This is Illinois where Springfield is the capital but Daley is the King. If your species can provide a lucrative maintenance contract to a Daley relative, you’ll be just fine.

More seriously, I think it is ironic that some of the comments have dismissed as unpursuasive DNA evidence linking the deceased cougar to sitings elsewhere. Isn’t that exactly the kind of evidence cryptozoologists long for but rarely get?

]]>By: Point Radixhttp://cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/chic-puma-wild/comment-page-1/#comment-42438
Thu, 01 May 2008 20:18:39 +0000http://cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/chic-puma-wild/#comment-42438Interestingly enough, there was a post on cryptomundo today (May 1st) on the new species of Bolivian river dolphin, which was immediately “adopted by the Bolivian government as a symbol of the country’s conservation efforts”. That immediate recognition of a new species is probably the best way of dealing with new (or rediscovered) animals in terms of their conservation/protection (and thus deciding what is “normal” for the ecosystem) – unfortunately, it probably doesn’t work that way in most countries…
]]>By: Loren Colemanhttp://cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/chic-puma-wild/comment-page-1/#comment-42437
Thu, 01 May 2008 16:42:38 +0000http://cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/chic-puma-wild/#comment-42437I think that some people make the mistake in conceptualizing that wild animals divide up the world in the same way that humans do – into the rural vs urban, or rural, suburban, vs urban.

Step back a moment.

From most studies of wild animals in cities, these animals (including large felids) merely experience these “things” placed there by humans as being in the way of their old trackways, or serving as intriguing and interesting new challenges to getting from one greenbelt to the next.

Some of these places full of smelly primates even have chewy treats along the way (e.g. little dogs chained up in backyards), which make nice snacks during their journeys.

]]>By: kittenzhttp://cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/chic-puma-wild/comment-page-1/#comment-42436
Thu, 01 May 2008 16:28:02 +0000http://cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/chic-puma-wild/#comment-42436Who’s to say that it was not taken from the wild as a kitten, then raised in captivity? The DNA would be the same as that of a wild puma in that case. I find it hard to believe that a wild puma suddenly chose an urban area for its habitat, when there is so much rural territory in Illinois where it could have gone instead.
]]>By: shumway10973http://cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/chic-puma-wild/comment-page-1/#comment-42435
Thu, 01 May 2008 15:45:45 +0000http://cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/chic-puma-wild/#comment-42435That cat could have originated in South Dakota. They can travel far distances. Especially if, when he was kicked out by mama, he couldn’t find any “free” land (all had been taken by other cougars for their territories). Cougars will take multiple acres as their territory (my parents have a double homestead with one cougar and babies). So, he was pushed further and further east. As the crow flies (or cougar wonders in this case) South Dakota really isn’t that far away. And why Chicago? Food. Free food and no one to compete with (that we know of).
]]>By: Spinach Villagehttp://cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/chic-puma-wild/comment-page-1/#comment-42434
Thu, 01 May 2008 06:18:25 +0000http://cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/chic-puma-wild/#comment-42434I need more evidence than just a statement that the cougars DNA matched one that was sampled in Wisconsin… What are the chances of that?… It could be a statement that they concocted to make the story fit nicely alongside the other stories that they tell us.

ps.

Point Radix… I totally agree with u, its a clever catch 22…
Never mind the fact that they used to live there before they were supposedly completely extirpated… in Michigan its possible that they have existed in small populations since the extirpating effort, not to mention other parts of the Midwest and east coast.

Using that rational, any animal that has suffered near extinction at the hands of man and its population starts to rise again is threatened to be decimated again… its a good thing animals don’t have guns or we would be engaged in all out war… Problem is that they don’t comprehend the assault on there kind… poor animals